Spinneret assembly



1950 P. A. SIMPSON ETAL 2,958,097

SPINNERET ASSEMBLY Filed Sept. 12, 1957 United States Patent SPINNERETASSEMBLY Paul A. Simpson, Nitro, W. Va., and William P. Dooley,

Wallingford, Pa., assignors to American Viscose Corporation,Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 12, 1957, Ser.No. 683,550

3 Claims. (Cl. 18-8) The present invention relates to a spinneretassembly for use in apparatus for producing tows or ropes of filamentaryartificial yarn, such as rayon, from which staple fiber may be out.

A great deal of experimentation has been conducted recently indeveloping a spinneret assembly of a streamline nature whereby therewill result a smooth nonturbulent flow of coagulating acid across thespinneret plate. It has been found that the smoother the flow is acrossthe spinneret plate, the better the yarn product and the spinningoperation will be. This is especially true when the spinneret plate hasas many as 2000 orifices.

The development of such an assembly has been heretofore hindered by twomain problems. In the first instance, it has been the general practiceto produce spinnerets having an outwardly extending flange for use insupporting the spinneret in position on the rounder which connected thespinneret unit with the viscose supply line. Such type mountinggenerally called for a lock nut or coupling to lock the spinneret inposition on the rounder. This lock nut or coupling extended beyond thediameter of the spinneret barrel and thereby created a turbulence in theacid as it flowed over the spinnert foil, which turbulence adverselyaffected the spinning process as well as the quality of the final yarn.To develop a jet assembly having a streamlined exterior would requirethe elimination of this outwardly extending flange portion of thespinneret.

The second problem which has heretofore retarded the development of asuitable streamline jet assembly was the supposedly apparent need, inaddition to the usual filter in the spinning solution supply line, of aspinneret screen or filter patch of large enough area for the spinneret.Complications were encountered in attempting to develop a streamlinedjet assembly by internal coupling means in view of the presence of thefilter patch extending across the diameter of this spinneret barrel.

This latter problem has been eliminated in that satisfactory filteringmay now be accomplished without need of a spinneret filter patch throughuse of the filtering assembly described in Dolley application Ser. No.680,137, filed August 26, 1957, and entitled Filter Assembly. This aboveapplication relates to a filter unit of a multiple screen nature and isdesigned to be installed in the main feed line of the yarn-spinningsolution which leads to the spinneret unit. With the elimination of thespinneret filter patch, much more freedom was now available for novelinterconnecting of the numerous elements making up the spinneretassembly whereby smooth acid flow over the spinneret plate might beachieved. With this additional freedom now available, it has beenpossible to solve the first problem relating to the outwardly extendingflange for the spinneret mount which normally extends into the path ofthe coagulating liquid flowing around the spinneret plate.

It is therefore one object of the invention to provide an improvedspinneret assembly for use in yarn-forming 2,958,097 Patented Nov. 1,1960 ice apparatus wherein all portions of the spinneret assembly,including the spinneret face, have equal outside diameters whereby asmooth unobstructed acid flow pattern may be achieved around thespinneret face.

Another object of the invention is to provide a spinneret assemblywherein the spinneret is actually in the form of a female-type couplingand has an inwardly extending flange rather than an outwardly extendingflange, which flange aids in holding the remaining elements of theassembly in locked position.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparentfrom a study of the following description and drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a partially sectioned view showing the external and internalstructure of the spinneret assembly, and

Figure 2 is an enlarged view of that portion of the assembly bounded bythe dot-dash lines in Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawing, the spinneret assembly is preferablyformed of an elongated male coupling 1 having a central bore 3 and anexternal thread track 5. The male coupling 1 is connected with thesupply conduit 7 for the yarn-forming solution by a partially threadedsecondary coupling 9 which is positioned over the supply line andthreaded onto the thread track 5 of the male coupling 1 to urge andclamp the facing ends of the supply line and the coupling together. Aresilient gasket 11 preferably formed of rubber is positioned betweenthe end of the male coupling 1 and the end of the supply line or conduit7 for providing a seal therebetweem The secondary coupling 9 has ashoulder portion 13 which seats upon a flanged end portion 15 of thesupply'line whereby the secondary coupling 9 firmly clamps together thesupply line, the gasket and the male coupling when the coupling 9 isrotatably moved into its clamping position.

As further seen in the drawing, the opposite end of the male coupling 1terminates in a tapering flange '16 which extends outwardly from theaxis of the male coupling at approximately an angle of l20-160 from theaxis of the coupling. This flanged end portion 16 of the male coupling 1is inserted within a female-type spinneret coupling 17 which includes,as an integral part thereof, a face plate 19 having minute orifices 21extending therethrough through which the yarn-forming material isextruded as it passes into the interior female coupling 17 from the bore3 of the male coupling 1.

The opposite end of the female-type spinneret coupling 17 terminates inan inwardly extending flange 23. Preferably, the flange 23 extendsinwardly of the side of the female coupling at approximately a rightangle. The outside diameter of the flange 16 is slightly less than theinside diameter of the flange 23 so that the couplings may be readilyassembled.

Loosely positioned within the female-type spinneret coupling 17immediately adjacent the underside of the flange 23 and lying betweenthe underside of the flange 23 and the tapering flanged end 16 of themale coupling 1, is a resilient gasket 25 preferably in the form of arubber O-ring. This gasket 25 is intended to form a seal between theabove flanged portions of the male and female-type couplings 1 and 17respectively.

To urge the tapering flanged end 16 of the male coupling 1 against thegasket 25 and, in turn, to urge the gasket against the underside of theflange 23, as well as the upper portion of the inner surface of the sidewall of the female coupling 17 to provide a seal therebetween, a wedgenut 27 is threaded over the complementary thread track 5 on the exteriorof the male coupling 1. By threading the wedge nut 27 toward the taperedflanged end 16 of the male coupling 1, the nut 27 is brought intocontact with the flange 23 of the female-type spin.-

neret coupling. Upon further rotation of the nut 27, the

flanged end 16 of the male coupling 1 is drawn outwardly of the female.coupling 17 against the gasket 25 and the underside of the femalecoupling flange '23 to provide a tight seal, between the two couplings.The wedge nut 27 is, of course, threaded upon the male coupling 1 beforethe supply line 7 is connected with the male coupling. To preventmarring the flange 23 of the female spinneret coupling 17 throughcontact with the wedge nut 27 during assembly, a slip ring 24 ispositioned between the opposing surfaces of the nut and flange. I

The male coupling 1, the wedge nut 27', and the lock nut 9 arepreferablyformed of hard rubber material or a corrosion-resistant alloysuch as Hastelloy C while the female coupling 17 is preferably formed ofa rigid metal suchasplatinum, The gaskets or seals 11 and 25 arepreferably formed of soft rubber.

The gasket 25 must be of such design and structure that it does notpocket during assembly of the couplings. A straight line surface must-lie against the straight line surface of the flange 16 of the malecoupling. This precaution is necessary to prevent the formatrion of deadspots or pockets behind the flange 16 wherein viscose or other spinningsolution might accumulaterand gel. Portions of such gel matter willbreak off .and clog up the spinneret openings.

From a study of the above description of the spinneret assembly, itisseen that we have provided a novel-type assembly. wherein the outsidediameter of the jet assembly a umror'm and equal whereby the acid flowover the spinneret will be smooth and nonturbulent, thus providing,improved spinning conditions and improved yarn.

While preferred embodiments have been shown and described, his to beunderstood that changes and variations may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in theappended claims.

We claim: p

1. A spinneret assembly for use in producing artificial yarn from ayarn-spinning material comprising a' cupshaped spinneret comprising aface portion having a plurality of orifices through which theyarn-spinning material is extruded, a cylindrical portion formedintegrally with said face portion, an inwardly directed flange on saidcylindnical portion at the end opposite the face portion, an elongatedtubular coupling member having an outwardly directed flange on one endthereof, said outwardly directed flange having a smaller diameter thanthe internal diameter of the inwardly directed flange of saidspinneretand said outwardly directed flange being located within .said spinneret,a resilient ring-shaped gasket located between s'aid'flan'ges, saidgasket having an internal diameter smaller than the diameter of saidoutwardly directed flange and an outside diameter larger than thediameter of said inwardly directed flange, and a cylindrical elementpressing the flanges of the spinneret and coupling member toward oneanother to compress salid gasket therebetween to form a seal, saidcylindrical element having the same diameter as the cylindrical portion.of the spinneret and constituting with said cylindrical portion acontinuous cylindrical surface for said spinneret assembly.

2. The assembly set forth in claim 1 wherein said cylindrical element isreleasably secured to said coupling member.

3. The assembly set forth in claim 1 wherein said coupling member isexternally threaded and said cylindrical element is internally threadedand screwed onto said coupling member.

References-Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS932,025 Witte Mar. 20, 1934 2,803,851 Braunlich Aug. 27, 1957 2,834,046Hesselink May 13, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,029,765 France June 5, 1953516,571 Germany Jan. 23, 1931

